History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c24.s1.313

v2.c24.s1.313

Oral instruction was the cheapest and most accurate method of imparting learning. In ancient times writing materials were not easily available and written texts could not be handled easily and would have been extremely costly. Therefore the method of oral instruction was resorted to and having been hallowed by the lapse of thousands of years it has been persisted in to the present day. Even in the 20th century after writing has been known for not less than 3000 years according to scholars like Bühler there are hundreds of brāhmaṇas who learn not only the whole of the Ṛgveda (about 10580 verses) by heart, but also commit to memory the pada⁸⁴¹ text of the Ṛgveda, the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa and Āraṇyaka and the six Vedāṅgas (which include the 4000 aphorisms of Pāṇini and the extensive Nirukta of Yāska) without caring to understand a word of this enormous material.